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Nausicaa – 3 Translating Khador to 40k, infantry

In this post I reflect on different models from the Warmachine Khador range in view of their use for a Vostroyan-based Imperial rebels army. This is the first of a series that will cover infantry, officers, special forces and unwanted allies, outlining the project and adding here and there a snippet of fluff. Following posts will be dedicated to other miniature ranges.

Translates to: Imperial guard infantry regiment.

These can be used straight out of the box side by side with the Vostroyans. The rifles are visibly not lasguns – this is an issue with the whole Khadorian range – but still they somewhat look credible: Nausicaa is not a technologically advanced world and there are reasons why their military engineers may have gone crazy on vintage. Moreover, Vostroyan lasguns look retro as well, and compared to the Khadorians’ they may become viable as elite or hot-shot lasguns. Guns aside, the cloaks, shoulder amour, and beards fit in perfectly and the backpacks add a nice touch of realism and “fatigue”. Only other drawback, the Khadorian emblem is quite visible on their hats and I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be able to file it away. Maybe I’ll just leave it there.

Translates to: Infantry conversions.

If the rifles were a concern, these blunderbusses are a bigger problem. I don’t like them, they don’t fit in, and there’s five of them. The rockets are nice but not very playable – it may be possible to transform them in flamers, though. The models with axes (the leader and just another sculpt repeated three times) could be used as platoon commanders or as the odd tanker. All in all, maybe good for some conversions, but I’m not too convinced.

Translates to: Mortar heavy weapon team.

Definite hit even if I’m not too fond of the bombard. I may remove the swab and rotate the gunner’s arm a little, and substitute the bombard with an actual mortar from 40k – I have one from the Vostroyan box, and then I can use the Vostroyans as vehicle crew.

Translates to: Platoon HQ.

Another auto-include as it adds to the winter guard platoon (14 models so far counting the rifleman squad and the mortar). The standard provides a cheaper and more costumisable alternative to the overly flamboyant official version – which remains an awesome model but is better used as in the company HQ. Again, the officer’s gun looks archaic, but in this case it’s a simple matter of amputation! It’s nice to have a female model, to break from all those moustaches.

Translates to: Autocannon heavy weapon team.

The gun is retro styled but the men are good looking. I like the pose of the gunner and the undecidable expression of despair and resolve on the ammo guy’s face. I might have to amputate again on the third guy – guess which arm – and use him somewhere else. All in all a decent addition, bringing the count at 16 and thus completing a platoon command and a single infantry squad. From that I can either go with another infantry squad, or pick the hard road of the blunderbusses and convert my way through toward a full platoon.

Translates to: Ratling?

I love these models, and they would mix perfectly with the existing Vostroyan snipers. The rifles look more acceptable than the average and for the rest similar pros and cons: repeated sculpts (calling for some hardcore metal-cutting action), but extremely pleasing female model. I don’t know if anywhere in the proliferation of Imperial codexes there is a way of fielding these as actual human snipers rather than ratlings – that would be a relief. Together with the I believe four different sculpts of Vostroyan snipers and an Widowmaker leader from Privateer Press, that makes 9 snipers, enough for three ratling squads and almost enough for two five-men squads in case that is possible. Sinpers used to be quite ineffective when I was still playing 40k, but these are meant to target Imperial officers and commissars and they surely look like they know their business.

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7 thoughts on “Nausicaa – 3 Translating Khador to 40k, infantry”

Oooh, these look great! I would deffo think about how to include those rocketeer support mooks as some kind of special weapons dudes – grenade launchers or whatever, while the rocket dudes themselves would make awesome retro flamers with a backpack swap and a file! I can see them now 🙂 Oh, and special weapon squads puts 3 sniper rifles in a 6 man team, or you can give 3 to a vet squad… lovely minis, but they suck in-game 😉 Love this project!!!

Yay! Turning some into grenade launchers is a good idea, thanks! Oh and I had forgotten about the sniper special squads. They never made much sense to me, but they would be definitely “cleaner” than count-as ratlings. Yesterday I had some time to dedicate to the Chimera, it’s coming up soon.

To be honest, I am not familiar either – I haven’t ever held one in my hands. The scale should be 30mm. Looking around on forums the general opinion seems to be that the two ranges blend together without problems. However, some also point out that there are odd scale variations *within* the Privateer range, some models being slightly bigger than others even in the same faction. I’m willing to try out a squad and a character anyway and I’ll post a scale (and style) comparison as soon as I can.
Yes, the snipers are really nice, I think they could work in almost any setting, from fantasy Empire engineers (there’s an officer I haven’t showed in the post) to Necromunda.

Haven’t looked at Warmachine stuff in ages but there’s some nice models in this range – will definitely be interesting to see how you mix them up with the Vostroyans. Are the models still all metal or are there plastics in the range now?
As for the blunderbusses – are the arms fused to the bodies? If not it might be fairly straightforward to replace them with lasguns.

As far as I know, they have plastic kits for some of the Jacks – i.e. the steam robots – but the rest is metal. I’m thinking some would make for great Ork conversions… There are many nice models here and there and some very nice ideas also in the Hordes factions. Overall, though, the range still hasn’t got the design quality GW can crank out, especially if you’re out for conversions. But I’ll let you know what I think after I have a brush with some of their minis, eh eh.
I guess the infantry models I’ve been reviewing are metal and all in one piece, but I’ll be really glad if I’m wrong.